historical value in storage for potential use in educational exhibitions (such as those now in the Crypt) or in future reconstructions. This inventory includes items such as pieces of original carved sandstone saved during the restoration of the West Front of the Capitol and cast bronze pieces removed during the 1949-50 remodeling of the House Chamber. In addition to maintaining the inventory of and records on works of art, the Curator performs other functions on behalf of the Architect in response to requests from Congress. Among these functions are managing and keeping records of loans of works of art to the leadership and committees from the Smithsonian Institution and other museums as well as outgoing loans. An important curatorial function is the care of works of art through attention to display conditions and through the conservation program, funded through annual appropriations for Repairs, Works of Art, and Conservation of Wall Paintings. Among the most recent conservation projects so documented are the collection of portraits of Speakers and their historic frames, the Mace of the House of Representatives, frescoes by Constantino Brumidi in room H-144, and the ceilings of a number of House committee rooms painted at the turn of the century. Since the establishment of the House Fine Arts Board, portraits of committee chairmen have been included in this program. The reports prepared by conservators are preserved in the records of the Architect. November 1994 HOUSE CURATOR DISCUSSION CONTINUED Ms. KAPTUR. And I think that the whole racial and ethnic exclusivity that is represented by what is on the walls here does not help us as we move forward in this country. So to the extent that we can work together on this, just know this Member is vitally interested in it. And I think it is important for our children. And when you look around our country today and you see what is going on it was very upsetting to me when I see these kids murdering kids largely in suburban areas that are very uniform in their makeup. Unless we learn how to deal and develop tolerance and better understanding, then we are not going to progress as fast as we can as a society. And I think we have to work to teach. We have an enormous opportunity here. And we cannot just let it slip between our fingers. I would appreciate the Architect or superintendent, whoever could come and visit with me on this. Share your thinking with me. And if there is anything I can put in this bill that could encourage you so that you feel comfortable, we will work with you on that language. ROOM H-208 Ms. KAPTUR I want to shift to another question, and that is a room located here in the Capitol, maybe someone here could clarify the current use of H-208. It is a room on the second floor right outside of where we vote. In the 20th century it was used as the Ways and Means Committee room. Would somebody clarify what that room is being used for today, please? Ms. POOLE. We do not do room assignments. Room assignments in the Capitol building are done through the Speaker's office. We just do not have that kind of information available to determine what the rooms are used for. Ms. KAPTUR. Do you provide that space with furniture? Ms. POOLE. No. Ms. KAPTUR. Do you have anything to do with that room? Painting it? Fixing the windows? Ms. POOLE. Yes, ma'am. Ms. KAPTUR. So it is legislative branch appropriations that are spent on the room's upkeep and maintenance, the carpeting, the drapes. Phone installation. It is my understanding that that room is now being used by the executive branch. Is that a correct understanding? Could someone tell me that? Does the superintendent know? Ms. POOLE. It would be the Speaker's office that could provide that. Mr. TAYLOR. Maybe we can get some information on that and we will move on to Mr. Sherwood and we will try to find that out. Ms. POOLE. Yes. [The following question from Congresswoman Kaptur and response follows:] ROOM H-208 Question. Can you tell us who is responsible for paying the cost of power, tele tenance, or improvement for H-208. What have these charges been by item from January 20, 2001 to present? Response. The cost of furniture, equipment, telephone, and carpet is the responsibility of the Chief Administrative Officer. The Architect does have an annual appropriation for the operation, maintenance and repair of the U.S. Capitol to include H208. All other work not considered maintenance and repair is done with the approval of the Speaker of the House. Operating costs such as utilities and cleaning are not tracked or available by room. No other construction or renovation costs have been incurred by the AOC. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Mr. SHERWOOD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And in light of the impassioned comments that we have just had on the urban forestry and the importance of art in the Capitol, mine are a little prosaic. But what I wanted to ask you with regards to your financial management system, would you bring us up to speed on your computer modernization program and how are we transitioning from the old legacy computer systems? What is our progress? Mr. HANTMAN. Our computer system in the Architect of the Capitol is being transformed into a financial management system. We have as of October of this last year, we have put our first module up, which is a standard general ledger. 1.2 million funded for that. We are now working that. That was the first of many modules. We are recording general entries on it, producing financial statements that we were never able to do before. We are asking for funds in this budget to continue with the next series of base building modules. Budget execution. Purchasing, accounts payable, disbursements, accounts receivable. This will basically eliminate the existing CAS system that we have now and make it compliant with Government standards. We have about 1.5 million and we are beginning that process. We are asking you to provide $1.356 million to complete that process which we expect to have up and running by March of next year. Concurrent with that, we have our phase 3, which is for the Procurement Office a contracting module, and we are asking 720,000 for that, which we would have up and running by October of next year. And we are going through this entire thing. This inventory module we will be putting in next, a fixed assets module, and it will be an integrated system. You heard about the computer aided facilities management program that will be integral. Payrolls will be integral. All of these issues. We are moving ahead and have made a lot of progress. We have a new staff. And each of our groups from the accounting group to procurement group and all is beginning to work with the information that they need so they can make these systems be maintained appropriately and move forward. So it is a good story. And the financial manager's counsel, which includes GAO and Library of Congress, are all part and parcel of who we keep up to date on what we are doing. And they know what we are doing, and we are cross-servicing with the Department of Interior. It is an American management system's momentum program which is JFMIP compliant. Mr. SHERWOOD. Will this tie in with your analysis of your historical assets and the scheduled maintenance for them? Mr. HANTMAN. Absolutely. All of our work orders will be able to Inventory systems of all kinds will ultimately be part of this system, sir. Mr. SHERWOOD. Will that project meet our maintenance needs, then? Mr. HANTMAN. Yes. Advanced maintenance when we have to maintain on a 6-month basis or 1-month basis, all of that proactive work would be factored in and we will have printouts that tell us to go check fan room number two. All of that will be fully integrated and we are working as an organization to do that. It is a 5-year plan to get the whole thing up and running. We have a good flying start. We are on schedule with the general ledger, and I think everybody recognizes that. Mr. SHERWOOD. Thank you. Mr. TAYLOR. Thank you. [The following question from Chairman Taylor and response follows:] FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Question. You are requesting $2.1 million to continue implementing your new Financial Management System. What progress have you made and what will this request fund? Response. The AOC has made significant progress towards the implementation of the new Financial Management System (FMS). On October 1, 2001, the AOC successfully implemented the general ledger module of the system on schedule and according to the U.S. Standard General Ledger guidelines. The AOC is now recording general entries at the transaction level and can produce financial statements based on balances in general ledger accounts. The new system also allows producing financial information by monthly accounting period, which was not possible in the old system. Now that Phase 1 is implemented, the FMS project team must maintain the system by processing the daily interfaces, performing reconciliations with the feeder systems, and issuing monthly reports. In addition to maintaining Phase 1, the FMS project is currently working on the implementation of Phase 2 of the project. Phase 2 will implement the Budget Execution, Purchasing, Accounts Payable, and Disbursement modules of the new system. Phase 2 requires a significant effort since FMS will be implemented in all jurisdictions (200 users) and the old system will be completely phased out except for inventory tracking. Phase 2 is scheduled to "go live" on March 1, 2002 and requires the approval of FY2002 funding. Phase 2 requires performing the following tasks, most of which are currently in process: Development and maintenance of a detailed project plan and schedule Configuration of FMS to meet user needs System set-up and pilot testing of the set-up End user acceptance testing Automated conversions of data from the old system to FMS Development of end user reports Development of an interface with Inventory system Development of an interface with Project Information System (PIC) Training of new users Development of procedure guides for end-users Providing user support to new users Quality Assurance of all Phase 2 tasks The funding request for FY2002 follows: The FY2002 funding request of $1,356,000 for Phase 2 will cover contractor support from October 1, 2001 through April 1, 2002 and software license fees for up to 200 users. Phase 2 of the FMS project was partially funded with FY2001 funding and will require the FY2002 funding to be successfully implemented on March 1, AOC, because it will replace most functions of the old system with the new federally compliant FMS system. It will also significantly increase AOC's changes of passing an audit since the new system will be implemented with proper audit trails and controls. A full audit is expected to be accomplished for the FY2003 financial state ments. The FY2002 funding request of $720,000 for Phase 3 will cover the implementation of a Contracting module for the procurement office. Phase 3 is scheduled to be implemented on November 1, 2002. The AOC's contractual workload has increased significantly over the last few years with the contracting out of more of the construction projects and the increase in the complexity of the contracts being issued. The Contracting module will provide the Procurement Office with automated support for the issuance and management of contract solicitations, contract awards, contract modifications, and contract administration. The funding request covers contractor implementation support for the period January 1, 2002 through November 1, 2002 and software license fees. LEGISLATIVE SPACE Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to follow up on this room H-208, and I heard what the representatives of the Architect said about this being in the jurisdiction of the Speaker, but some of these funds for the purpose of the room coming from legislative branch appropriations. And it is my understanding, and I will check with the Speaker, that the staff in that room are executive branch personnel. If that is true, it is an anomaly, because that room was designed historically to serve as a committee room for this House, for the legislative branch, and it served that purpose in the 19th century for a military committee that sat there and throughout the 20th century for the Ways and Means Committee. Now I am going to get clarification on this, and I reserve the right to bring this up on the floor. But if, in fact, we have executive branch personnel functioning out of legislative branch offices, with expenses for the upkeep, the telephones and so forth, paid for by the legislative branch, I think it is entirely inappropriate. So I just wanted to bring that issue up in the subcommittee, and perhaps others have more they can enlighten me on. But this is an historically first if, in fact, it has occurred. And it is my understanding that the congressional staff of the White House is currently operating out of that legislative space. I find that very curious and historically inappropriate. BOTANIC GARDEN LIVING EXHIBITS Let me ask the Architect of the Capitol on the exhibits over at the Botanic Garden there are going to be some childhood learning exhibits, I don't know what those are, but let me mention a struggle that I am involved in and I haven't succeeded, and it relates to the Smithsonian. When you get up and running, is there any possibility of your sharing throughout Internet some of what you will have with the Smithsonian, particularly in the agricultural exhibit over in the American History Museum? Because no child in this country would go into the Living Sciences if they walked though the agricultural exhibit. It is old. It is awful. It looks like this is something that belongs to the past, not the future, and it is absolutely wrong. One of my interests is in trying to get some of the private companies of our country involved in updating that agricultural exhibit so that when the millions of visitors come through here each year, |